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DISCLAIMER: This transcript is provided on an "as is" best efforts basis and is based on a MiniDisc recording made where speech was not always legible because of noise in the room and placement of the microphone at the back of a large room. Any errors made in transcribing what was actually said are mine, and not those of the speakers quoted, and may include spelling mistakes, incorrect names and other minor typo's. Readers should also bear in mind that statements read in cold print can often convey a completely different meaning from that intended by the speaker and perceived by the original audience. WARNING: CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE!
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Question: I have a question for Sean. Have you checked out the exits, in case of emergencies? Sean Astin: The thought had occurred to me! The security people told us that if the girls got too outrageous they'd just take us right out. So I feel relatively safe at the moment. But you know I was on a plane last night, flying from New York and we were up in First Class in Virgin, it was one of their smaller planes, and their seats go all the way down. And as I was sleeping, I don't know if this is ... Elijah Wood: That was a weird way of sleeping by the way! There was the bed …and that thing... kind of lying down. And the floor... That was weird.! Sean: And before we went to bed, Dom... oh man, I don't know if I can say this kind of thing... (FX: confers with Elijah) Elijah: (mock-shocked) Sean!
Sean: Well Dom and Billy were talking about how sometimes... Elijah: Dom and Billy??! Sean: Dom and ..No... you're Elijah Elijah: I mean I love Bill but... Sean: I'm just used to saying those two names together! So, Dom and Elijah were talking about.. sometimes when they wake up in the middle of the night… Elijah: (interrupting to cut to the chase) We were talking about nocturnal emissions, folks! Sean: And I was saying I'd never had that! And he was like 'You, you're not normal!' Not only did I not have a nocturnal emission on the plane on the way over, I.. Elijah: It's not just the men. Women get these things as well you know! Sean: They do?!
Elijah: How many women here have had a nocturnal emission? That's right. No, you have to be asleep to have a nocturnal emission. Sean: So but then I had a nightmare that the plane was crashing into the water and that we were all sort of jumping out. Every time I fall asleep on a plane on the trans... I have dreams .. but it's not like a violent dream I'm just always… You asked a question about the fire exits... I'm always dreaming that it's filling up with water and you're having to fight our way out and... I need help! Question: Hi! I'm Rachel. I'm from Washington DC. My question is for both of you and if you had one question you could ask your fans, besides 'Are you completely nuts?', what would you ask? Sean: I know! Elijah: Go for it! Sean: 'What else you got going on?' Question: Nothing! Elijah: That's not good! 'What else are you interested in?'.. I dunno. Sean: What do you...A question for fans… …hmmmm - I had this conversation with a friend of mine before because he sort of didn't understand my relationship with the 'Bit of Earth' thing and my willingness to keep encouraging the 'Bit of Earth' folks. With each successive thing that 'Bit of Earth' does Jordon and Abby are getting smarter and are getting better at organising things and I believe in their ability to... not just those two... but the kind of focus, all the people who are working together and sort of serving up interesting ideas like creating a garden or honouring fans' creativity or whatever. So I had this conversation with a friend of mine about it. He said 'It's kind of unhealthy you know - the attention!' And I said 'I dunno - it's going to end, you know - the third film will come out next year, and there'll be a …you know, it'll recede a little bit. (FX: cries of 'Noooo' from the audience) It will! Over time… I mean that's not to negate the value of it... Listen, I'm not popping your bubble just yet. Eventually the balloon goes up and up and up, you can't see it anymore. That's all I'm saying.. eventually...
Question: We don't want to think about that! Sean: I understand! Question: You are going to lose your friends …we want to keep them! Sean: Awww. Well those friendships can endure. That's beautiful. Well you know we're talking about that too - the actors, you know. We're saying how next year... Dom's been saying over and over again.. next year's really important that we all find some way to get together and have a reunion and if we don't do it the first year, then what's to say we'll do it the second year? Or what's to say we'll do it the third year afterwards, you know? So... Elijah: Yeah, we're going through the same thing really. About keeping together and maintaining our friendships and not letting it die. Question: You're just like the fans? Elijah: We are! It's weird. For something like this...I think... Sean: But we don't know as much about Lord of the Rings Elijah: That's probably true!
Question: You do realise that you are going to be asked a lot more for sex, now that you are famous? Elijah: Oh God! That's so not true! It hasn't happened yet. Sean: Did you see 'Deep Impact'? Elijah: That's not a sexual reference! Question: Did you miss your friends and family more - because my Mum's up there - and I love her now that I'm at University, I really do. I miss her to bits. Hello Mum! Sean: Who's paying for University? Question: Mum! Sean: Why do you have to sit all the way up the back and she gets to sit all the way up the front? Did we miss our families? Definitely! Elijah: We missed our family and friends - yeah - a lot. But living in New Zealand, I think, took on a life of it's own. Being down there! And I sort of created a new family while I was there - I was so far away from my own family. And as much as I missed them, and missed my friends the life in New Zealand became so important to me as well. It was kind of rare that I'd call home because it sort of took all my time. (FX: turns to Sean) and you had your family there as well! Sean: I had my wife and daughter with me, and that was amazing. Elijah: So it was a different kind of experience? Sean: Yeah, but I'd like miss my Mom. And I'd miss my Dad. And my friends. It's amazing because you'd go back after a year and it's like nothing's changed but you've missed so much. You know - it's weird. And now my brother David, my eldest brother David, will call me every now and then and he'll say 'Hey man, where are you?' and it's like 'Oh, I'm in London' or 'I'm in Italy' or 'I'm back in New Zealand'. Whatever! And he sort of never knows. He dials the same phone number every time and I pick it up on a different part of the planet. So when he calls I really miss him and I find that usually I end up thinking about the people who I want to spend time with based on where I am on the planet. So if I'm like driving down a certain street and I happen to know that somebody lives not too far away, then I want to call them. And so the friendships that really endure over time are the ones who sort of don't mind getting the call and saying 'Hey! What are you doing? Like right this second? You want to get together and hang out for a minute?' Question: (garbled) What was the food like on set? Elijah: It sort of started out being alright but then it kinda took a decline! The catering.... Well during the day, there was a lot of cheese! (FX: silly debate with a few fans at the front about a sign they used for cheese involving three fingers with Elijah asking what significance it had and fans replying that they were bored! Sean suggested that they go through all the basic food groups and come up with signs for them!) And what was that... those things that Peter used to eat... that made his breath stink?
Sean: Oh yeah, that was horrible! Elijah: Peter used to come up to us with the most awful breath because he used to eat these pickled things. Sean: Yeah, I don't know. They were like kind of onions. Elijah: And he'd eat that with a big thing of cheeeeeeeese! And then come up and say 'So you're going to be (FX: moves closer to microphone and gets breathier and deeper) over there. Scared!'
Sean: The catering food was pretty... you know they had to feed a lot of people. Elijah: Quite a job! Sean: It was a military style effort feeding everyone, and it was really heavy, heavy foods. Lots of... Elijah: Lamb. Beef. Curry. Sean: Elijah and I, we got to a point when we were at the studio. We would either have Miyabi take-out .. Miyabi was the sushi store on Willis Street and we'd have.. Elijah: We'd get chicken or beef teriyaki Sean: Yeah but the chicken teriyaki set was the best! A little chicken teriyaki. A little meso soup. A little salad. Something like that. Or subway! Elijah:Subway sandwiches, man! You want to know what Sam and Frodo ate on their journey? It wasn't lembas bread! It was always subway sandwiches! That's what kept us going!
Sean: And then once in a while, we'd send out for a dessert. There was those chocolate crunch things. Remember those ice cream...? Elijah: Oh yeah! Chocolate - do you guys have a hand signal for that as well? Question: Have you ever considered doing theatre? Sean: Yeah. I'd love that. Yeah Question: (garbled) I heard that Dom tried to persuade you Elijah to do some? Elijah: It's funny. Dom and I were actually talking about it today! Yeah! I've never done theatre and I think it's a muscle that that I'd love to exercise. And it's a very different, you know, approach to acting and I'd like to do it. It makes me incredibly nervous - the idea of being on stage in front of a lot of people. Like I am now! But I would love to, I'd absolutely love to. And with Dom and Bill would be great. Question: If you had to sum up the other Fellowship cast members in one word what would you say? Sean: (whispers deeply) Sexy! Elijah: Why don't we run down the list of actors? That's such a cheap way to do it! Sean: Karl Urban Elijah: OK, Karl..erm.. Sean: Sexy! Elijah: Yeah, OK. (FX: responding to audience member shouting out name)John Rhys-Davies? Sean: Totally sexy! (FX: does John Rhys-Davies impression:) Hello dear heart, how are you doing? John Rhys-Davies, How are you doing? 'Fine', Where do you live John? 'I live on the Isle of Man, otherwise known as 10,000 alcoholics clinging to a rock in the middle of the sea. John, you know, would say 'Asps! Very dangerous! You go first! Indy, they are digging in the wrong place.' He would look at me and say 'You know Sean, sometimes it borders on parody'. In a word...
Elijah: You don't know how many times I've heard that story! Sean: When you're good at something you like to do it a lot! Elijah: Yeah! How many... We haven't run down all the Fellowship. Sean: Viggo Mortensen Elijah: Insane! Sean: Certifiably insane! Elijah: That's two words. 'Insane' will do. Sean: OK. Elijah: Billy? Hilarious. You know what? Billy - heart and soul, I don't know how to... Dominic? Sexy! Sir Ian McKellen? Sexy! FX: audience cheers Sean: He'd like to hear you say that! Elijah: Wink, wink! Nudge, nudge! Sean: Our scale doubles? Elijah: Brilliant! Scary! Kiran is amazing. Incredible!
Sean: Kiran is like the bravest, the most brave of anybody on the whole movie. He would do anything! He'd swing underneath the horse. He'd jump off a cliff. I mean, Kiran was insane! Elijah: Fon was amazing. Fon learned to speak English whilst she was in New Zealand, which was incredible. Sean: Did you guys.. I know somebody said they'd seen my little short film 'The Long and the Short of It'. FX: loud audience cheers Sean: To think that if we wouldn't have done that then none of you would know what she looks like and she spent fifteen, sixteen months, evey day, having her face painted - literally to look... because her skin is olive and .. painted to look like Billy. They became so close. I mean, they really love each other. Elijah: And BK was amazing as well! Sean: BK was awesome! Elijah: I miss BK (FX: does impression of BK:) 'I love red wine'. Sean: (FX: doing impressions too:) 'Mr President. Mr President'. 'You play chess?' Elijah: You guys are BK fans! That's so cool! How proud would he be! Sean: He, he wouldn't be surprised! I remember one time we were in...(FX: turns to Elijah) What was that place near Queenstown and we'd drive for like 45 minutes to the right if you're facing the lake. Elijah: Tehanu! Sean: No, not to the left, to the right. You were up on the gondola and you were looking back at the lake and we'd go to the right. Anyway it was one little... there was a lot of moss on the ground and there was one time that BK was there and he had his Indian music on his headphones and he was just out in the forest and we were just having so much fun looking at him dancing. That was the best... You had to be there! On to page 3 of this transcript.
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